(GrowingProduce) - Whether you often end a long, stressful week with a savory glass of ‘Pinot Noir’ or produce the grapes that make it all possible, you understand the importance of a productive and prolific wine industry. Unfortunately, many growers have experienced severe losses in recent years. The culprit? Pierce’s Disease (PD), a particularly destructive grapevine ailment that reduces and limits grape production.

“It is an endemic, chronic problem in the southeastern U.S., where it is the primary factor limiting the development of a grape industry based on the high-quality European-type grapes that are grown in California,” says Dr. Don Hopkins, a plant pathologist with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Hopkins, who has helped develop a biological control to fight the problem, says Pierce’s Disease has also limited the production of European grapes in Mexico, Central America, and the Southwestern U.S. California vineyards are at a greater risk due to the introduction of a pest — the glassy-winged sharpshooter — that transmits the bacterial pathogen, Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa (Xf), responsible for the disease.